Present day telephony networks typically have end-to-end networks built around circuit switches, end offices, a toll network, tandem switches, and twisted wires. These networks are commonly referred to as a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or plain old telephone service (POTS). Due to bandwidth limitations of plain old telephone service (POTS), there is an inherent inability to efficiently integrate multiple types of media such as telephony, data communication for personal computers (PC), and television (TV) broadcasts. Further, the type of customer services and feature/function capability that may be implemented in a PSTN is somewhat limited relative to a broadband communication system. Accordingly, new broadband architectures are developing which transmit voice, data, and multimedia (video and audio) communications using, for example, communication information packets. These communication packets may be constructed in one or more packet protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP) or Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). These new architectures gives rise to a new array of user services and capabilities not previously available with PSTN. One such new service and system capability of a packet based broadband communication system is provided by the present application for indexed database of personal communications.
Present PSTN voice mail systems do not readily provide a method that enables a caller to build and maintain a searchable database of all communications that a person participates in, including voice and multimedia (video and audio) communications. Further, present PSTNs voice mail systems do not automatically include the digital representation of the message left that would readily enable saving and searching either one, or both, communications to and from a communication device. For example, in the present PSTN networks if a telephone call is recorded then both parties voice communications will be recorded whether both parties approve or not. Nor can the present PSTN support segregating portions of a multimedia communication. Thus, in general, the present PSTN infrastructure will not support creation and manipulation of an indexed database of personal communications. However, with the development of packet based broadband communication systems, such a database of voice and multimedia communications is possible to implement. An indexed database of personal communications represents a value to consumers as a means to enable a system user to readily create and quickly search a database of personal communications for any information he/she needs.